The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

Robin Clifford

Laura Clifford

An aging blind man (Takeshi Kitano) sits resting along a
dusty road. The leader of a gang of thugs bribes a child to take the man’s
cane away from him. The boy does so and is rudely sent away without payment
for his deed. The gang leader then chides the man for having his precious
cane taken away so easily. In a flash, the old man snatches the cane, pulls
from it a razor sharp sword and dispatches three of the thugs. The rest run
away in the face of this amazing man named “Zatoichi.”

Robin:
Takeshi Kitano is a staple in the Japanese TV and film industries and has
had a long and successful career, often with his hard-nosed gangster-with-a-heart.
With “Zatoichi,” he takes on the character from Kan Shimozawa’s popular novels,
made many times for the big screen in Japan, and brings it west. Zatoichi,
also known as Ichi, is an aging, blind masseur wandering the land at a time
when the honor of the samurai is waning and the rise of organized crime is
becoming a blight upon the peasant population.

One gang, in particular, has descended on a small village and is moving in
on its rivals to extort “protection” money from the locals. Zatoichi arrives
in town and is taken in by a kindhearted peasant woman whom he grows fond
of. The masseur has a liking for a little gambling – a hobby his landlady
admonishes him over because of how it ruined her nephew’s life – and spends
his evenings playing and winning at dice. The blind man listens to how the
dice fall and bets accordingly. He becomes a mentor, of sorts, to the nephew
and, eventually, must be his protector.

A young, masterless samurai, Hattori (Tadanobu Asano), arrives in town with
his pretty, ailing wife (Yui Nasukawa), seeking work as a bodyguard. He comes
to the attention of the head of the gang trying to wrest power from the other
local criminal elements. Hattori soon proves that he is a one-man army as
he dispatches one after another of his bosses enemies in a flash of steel
and a spray of blood. In the meantime, Ichi must come to the aid of his landlady’s
nephew in a gambling house, when he discovers they are being cheated. The
ensuing bloodbath comes to the attention of Hattori’s boss.

A pair of geisha arrives in town and begins to look for work plying their
trade. When a prominent local purchases their services, it is not song and
dance they perform as one garrotes the man and the other stabs him to death.
The two women are not what they seem as we learn of their story. Ten years
earlier, the two children, a boy and girl, sneak out one night to play with
their prize possession, a small white mouse. While playing with their pet,
the house is invaded by masked ninja and every member of the household is
slaughtered – except for the two children. Orphaned, they eek out a survival
as the boy must pose as a girl and the “sisters” begin their long journey
of revenge.

The lines are drawn in the village as Ichi takes in the sisters and he helps
them seek out those responsible for their family’s death. Hattori, under
orders from his gang boss, searches for the blind masseur and the geishas
to eliminate them with extreme prejudice. The blind man and the samurai have
crossed paths before and each knows the mettle of the other. The confrontation,
and it is inevitable, will end with one man standing.

Takeshi Kitano crafts an interesting addition to the popular Zatoichi series
that has produced 20 some movies about the blind sword master and had spawned
a popular TV series in Japan. Kitano’s version introduces a plethora of characters
early in the film and, unfortunately, their roles are not clearly delineated,
except for Ichi. There is a political agenda in the town as the gangs struggle
for power. But, the leaders of this mob warfare are kept ambiguous throughout
the film, causing confusion over who is loyal to whom. Just who “Mr. Big”
is in this film is kept open until the very end. But, by this time, so many
bad guys have been killed that the process of elimination has few candidates
left to choose from.

Kitano uses flash backs and forwards throughout “Zatoichi” to fill in the
back-stories of the many key characters and this is one of the causes of
confusion. The filmmaker does not make clear, often times, which flashback
applies to which character, sometime introducing a significant player in
the past just to be brushed aside later. The film would have benefited from
better editing and a more clearly realized story.

Fans of “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” are definitely a target audience for “Zatoichi.”
There are copious amounts of digitized blood and enough swordplay and fight
action to fill a couple of martial arts movies. The choreography of these
scenes is tight, fluid, fast and deadly, with both Kitano and Asano given
ample opportunity to prove their characters’ larger than life and capable
of the destruction they mete out.

Techs are very good with costume fitting the late medieval period of Japan.
Set design is equally suited for the occasion. Notable too is the organic
score by Keiichi Suzuki that perfectly blends in with the workaday world
of the peasant farmers or the ritual dance of celebration in the town. One
very out of place piece, near the end, has the entire cast taking part in
a huge, choreographed dance number that introduces all of the players in
the film but simply does not belong as an integral part of the movie. The
number would have been far more appropriate if used under the film’s roll
out credits.

“Zatoichi” is an interesting effort by a creative filmmaker. It is good but
not nearly great with some very effective performances. I give it a B.

Laura:
A large group of Samurai encourage a small boy to steal the cane of a blind
man sitting by the roadside. The child's success emboldens them and
they approach, but suddenly a blade flashes and several have been dispatched.
The rest take to their heels. The ordinary looking old masseur (Beat
Takeshi, "Brother") is the legendary "The Blind Swordsman: Zatôichi."

The Zatôichi stories from the novels of Kan Shimozawa have been made
into a number of Japanese films since the early 1960s. Multi-hyphenate
Japanese television star and film director Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano has updated
the character in a crowd pleasing mishmash of ultra violence, revenge, comedy
and "Stomp-like" musical interludes. Kitano and Yoshinori Oota's editing
is razor sharp within individual scenes, but often confusing transitioning
from one to the next, making "Zatôichi" tricky to follow.

Several story strands are introduced and randomly followed before they begin
to merge at about the film's hour mark. The humble masseur finds loding
with Mrs. Oume (the terrific Michiyo Ookusu), a no-nonsense peasant.
Two geishas, the Naruto 'sisters' O-Kinu (Yuuko Daike, "Dolls") and O-Sei
(Daigorô Tachibana), are hunting and killing the men responsible for
the murder of their family. Gennosuke Hattori (Tadanobu Asano, "Taboo (Gohatto)")
is a skilled ronin seeking employment as a bodyguard in order to care for
his consumptive wife O-Shino (Yui Natsukawa). The underbosses of the
mysterious head of the Kuchinawa clan are plotting to wipe his rivals.

Zatôichi meets up with Oume's nephew Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka,
"Warm Water Under a Red Bridge") at a Kuchinawa gambling house and his sharp
senses help the addict to make unexpected winnings. They're approached outside
by the geishas, but Zatôichi senses murderous intent when O-Kinu undoes
the strings of her shamisen and O-Sei gives off the scent of a male.
O-Kinu relates their story and they find a friend in Zatôichi.
The foursome retreat to Oume's house where she is surprised to be reunited
with her lost relative.

In a local saki bar which all the characters pass through, Hattori displays
his swordsmanship to Boss Ginzou (Ittoku Kishibe). Soon he is killing
his employer's enemies, much to his wife's consternation. When he runs
into the blind man in the bar, he observes 'You're no ordinary masseur.' 'I
smell blood on you too,' replies Zatôichi. The two will meet again.

The bleached blond Kitano maintains his typical stone-faced 'watchfulness'
which erupts into spectacular displays of violence. Here, Kitano almost
goes for a comic-book effect, with Pythonish blood spurting and injuries as
punch lines. Bright red droplets and vivid sprays seem to hang suspended
in air. In a repeated comic bit, a neighbor of Oume's who dreams of
becoming Samurai races about her house screaming and brandishing a spear.
Zatôichi simply bops him off the head with a well aimed log while chopping
wood. In fact, Kitano plays with the swordsman's blindless, hinting
that he may really be watching or allowing Shinkichi to draw eyes upon his
lids as a form of disguise.

The cross-dressing character of O-Sei also crosses the line between comedy
and tragedy, particularly when the young man's dance practice segues to a
flashback (one of the few times Kitano makes it clear he is changing time
periods) which shows the young boy prostituting himself for much needed coins.
The geisha siblings reenter the action when Oogiya (Saburo Ishikura) approves
them as entertainment for the big boss the Narutos seek vengeance on.
The eventual big showdown (which is oddly intercut with, before giving over
to, a spirited musical number where cast members dance on Geta sandals outfitted
for tap!) is followed by epilogues where the Kuchinawa boss's surprise identify
is revealed not once, but twice!

Sound is Kitano's seeming obsession in "Zatôichi." As the masseur
makes his way along a road in early goings, a comedic percussion score (original
music by Keiichi Suzuki, "Tokyo Godfathers") keeps rhythm with howers in a
field. Later raindrops fall to the beat of dancers in the mud. Oume's
house is rebuilt by workers wielding hammers as instruments of music.

While this "Zatôichi" is indeed fun, Kitano's storytelling is unnecessarily
confusing. The tremendously sympathetic character of Hattori, given
equal weight to Zatoichi in the film's first half, is dispatched too abruptly
and dispassionately. Still, now that Kitano has spent some artistic
exuberance reestablishing the character, he could proceed with a surer hand
for more adventures.